On September 12, Rahber caps a perfect season with at 11-0, only the 3rd perfect run in Golden Ball History, handing Tri only his 2nd close loss of the season at the hands of R. Read below from Rahber:

Rahber over Tri – 6-7, 6-0, 10-7

Brutal tough match against Tri – First set was pretty toughly contested – both of us were serving pretty decently – Big serves were dominating mostly – Forehands were the order of the day along with some drop shots. I was mostly dominating on my own serve until 2-3 when missing a few first serves and Tri instantly took advantage and put some pressure on and broke. He ended up missing a few first serves next game and we were back on serve. Tough game for me to take it to a tie break and had to come back from 0-30 as I was feeling the Tri pressure. Some good serves to take it to the tiebreak – Tri was too good and I tried to get aggressive but no go.

2nd set I knew I had to push Tri out of his comfort zone and put pressure on him before he steam rolled me. So the plan was keep it deep and no errors – and I hit a high and he hit a low and I started serving pretty big. Tri seemed to lose hope and was saving his energy for the 3rd set super tie break and I took it 6-0. 

Super tiebreak was all over the place – Tri was on fire and putting lots of pressure on me and causing my forehand to break down. He jumped out to a 6-3 lead and I was pretty sure I was dead. On 6-3 Tri hit a great Dropshot and I was able to run it down for a return winner. That was a big change in momentum and I decided that everything was going high deep and I was not missing. Tri missed a couple of Dropshots and made a few errors and I was able to pull out the tie break. 

Great match – fair play and good athleticism even if the strokes weren’t the best. I was most impressed by how much pace Tri gets on his serve even for being not a tall guy. If he improves his 2nd serve he will be even more of a nightmare to deal with. Looking forward to another battle soon!

On Saturday September 17, 4 teams battled it out for just the 4th Golden Ball Doubles Championship in a one day take all Doubles Tournament under the lights of Lower Woodland.

Doubles specialist and racket technician (playing with duct tape, wires, and hemp string on this 3 pound racket) Andrew Marshall teamed with Raja to win a round robin, BARELY overcoming a strong performance from Lynwood Montgomery and Will Millar. The duo of Andrew/Raja won the final championship set 7-5 over the singles players turned doubles tandem. Tom S and Tom T struggled, finding their footing in their 3rd place match but still losing, as Solid doubles play from the Nickolay/Arun team helped with a 3-1 record and barely missing out on the championship match, after they suffered a heart-crushing tiebreaker loss to Lynwood/Will in the “advance to the final” tiebreaker. Fun was had by all. Next year I am working on a four week Thursday night Doubles draw to strengthen our doubles Competitions.

Tri vs Rahber—After a long season, with many injuries and some up and down play from everyone else, the two most consistently strong players this year were Tri and Rahber. Rahber took out Tri in the regular season, which was his only loss, and Rahber has not lost this year. Both players had some challenges in the playoffs, in which Rahber was pushed in both his quarter and then ESCAPED in semifinals in tiebreak. Tri had tighter first sets in both his playoff matches, particularly a spirited battle with yours truly in which it took him 4 set points to win a 10-8 tiebreak or that match could have different result. Tri then exerted his superior offensive game however to fly into final.

Both players play with offense off the ground, with Rahber showing off a bigger serve particularly a harder 2nd serve which makes attacking difficult. Tri similarly has been hitting hard groundies for years, but his deceptive 2nd serve which slices low and fast, along with good placement on first consistently sets up his big forehand. Both players play strike first and go to net sparingly but are effective and consistent when at net. This match should come down to: 1. Who can take control consistently longer with forehand 2. Who can serve better to get some free points. 3. Defense? Tri’s defense has always been there, but he showed off some nicely placed lobs against me from very defensive positions. Similarly, Rahber usually gets in control of point quickly, but in times when he is pushed to defense, his deep returns are generally intelligent enough to get him into point.

This should be a great match! Good luck !

Reigning 2 time champ Rahber who was unable to defend his title last year will be fighting for his 3rd title. (In 2021 no champ was crowned when championship match was abandoned) Rahber’s description about the tight 7-6, 7-6 win:

A battle for both of us as neither of us were playing particularly well but we’re doing what we could to make points. My serve and backhand were not working and Raja was misfiring on his massive forehand. Rallies were decent length but we weren’t going for too much and keeping the ball in play. Raja was devastating off his drop shots – he got 5 in a row at one point and keeping me running hard and out of position. I was mostly winning points by moving the ball around and waiting for a low short ball. 

Raja had me 5-4 in the 1st and was serving for it but I managed to break back and we went into a tiebreaker – a few points made the difference – finally Raja had a drop shot that he missed under some pressure and I made a couple of fast 1st serves.

2nd set was similar battle with neither letting the other person get ahead. Similar structure in the tiebreakers – I was just hoping that Raja might miss under pressure because I was having a hard time finishing points. 

Probably my overhead was my best shot today with lots of decent kills and pressure points.

The epic first set on Saturday morning at Rainier Community center between Tri and Tom was long and physical, and it seemed like whoever won that set, would be in firm control of the match. That is exactly what happened!

I was unable to get ahead of Tri in the first set, with exception of 1-0. His offense and ability to hit winners of the forehand after his low sliding serve was the only real offense we could muster, but it continually gave him the advantage in the first few games. I was finally able to put a bit of pressure on his serve, while simultaneously attacking any short ones (and occasional deep shots) to keep Tri off balance a bit. However, the rest of the time, it was pretty evenly matched with many long low backhand to backhand to volleys. Frankly, I played pretty well but Tri’s forehand kept me from getting too comfortable, and I had several solid approach shots in which he hit some very nice defensive lobs on the run. It became quite the chess match with long points, with me either sneaking to net or him coaxing a short return and taking control with a solid forehand. I threw in droppers, off speed, lobs, sneak in attacks and about anything I could think of. This was about as good I could plays, and I was able to fight off one match point at 4-5, and down 5-6, I somehow fought into a tiebreak. I was up 4-1 (I think) in the tiebreak but Tri fought back and took the lead. Some long grinding points, I fought off 3 more set points but his well timed serving was the difference in the last games and in the tiebreak and he took tiebreak at 10-8.

Second set, we were both pretty gassed I hit a few extra errors but Tri (I feared) picked it up and raced to a 6-1 win in the second. Final was 7-6(8), 6-1 in 2 hours of mostly high quality tennis. I wasn’t able to match his game in the second and that was it. Congrats to him. Tri will play in his first championship while Tom will play for 3rd! Tri’s take on the match: I were played lots of good defense, he started off slow, he served better and played better in the second set. Good match!

The quarterfinals were completed this week. Working backwards with mine and Eric’s quarterfinal which was completed Sunday night a few hours ago:

1. Eric vs Tom T-On a balmy night at Mt. Si High School, one PE teacher played another (former) PE teacher and it was pretty physical. I was able in the first set to play control a decent amount of the points, and hit a few passing shots and get to net. It was a very long grueling set, I took it at 6-3. At 3-2 in the 2nd after Eric had been hitting many passing shots, I thought I might have to change things up. However, our chess match became him sneaking in to net and he eeked out a game at 3-2, then his steady defense and scrambling and a bit offense made me hit a few errors of mine and he rolled 4 games in a row, last 2 very easily. With his clear momentum, I think he went up 4-1 in super tiebreak, I just thought about keeping ball in and a few offensive approaches and he had few near misses, I grabbed the momentum and pulled it out. Tom wins 6-3, 3-6, 10-4
2. Raja vs Dhana–No writeup, Raja must have played well! Raja wins 6-2, 6-3
3. Will vs Tri–Great match at Genessee Courts. Tri’s offense had Will scrambling for a brutal first set. However, Will broke it down and said that Tri’s shots were just too much for him after the first set and Will was unable to keep it away from his Tri’s great forehand. Second set Will was forced to go for more power to neutralize the offense, but Tri’s game has just been elevated this entire year. Tri wins 6-4, 6-1
4. Rahber vs Tom S–The Two time champ broke it down below: Rahber wins 7-5, 7-6

“Tom’s level was much higher than our previous match – he was serving bigger and worse for me, returning really aggressively with pace and accuracy. Groundies were much bigger too from his side – so whatever he’s been doing it obviously improved his game. I was on the back foot much of the first set and it was all about trying to neutralize Tom’s firepower and just hang in points. I was able to pull in front finally got a loose game from Tom to take the set

2nd set Tom immediately fired up his game and went ahead 3-0 and I was hoping he would crumble with some pressure – instead he started going for more particularly off the forehand wing but also some superb heavy rips from his backhand. My slice which I was hoping would throw him off was completely ineffective and he was tearing me a new one. Score went to 1-4 and I just decided I was going to keep it in play and deep and see what Tom could do with high deep balls – fought back to 4-5 and Tom had a couple of set points I believe. At this point our serves had slowed down and we were both firing the doubles which saved my ass. I managed to scrape to 6-5 but Tomas held with a solid game and we ran into the tiebreaker which I was able to pull out with some good returning. Excellent game and lots of fun!

SEMI-FINALS

1 Rahber vs 4 Raja

2 Tri vs 6 Tom

The Golden Ball Qualies over the 9 years of our league have produced 2 champs, and 3 finalist. This is always the harder road as it entails a few extra matches and then drawing the top seeds in the Championship bracket.

Michael and Tom Suarez battled for the 3rd time this year, having split their first two matches. This battle was more of the same, as they battled early Friday at Lower Woodland. Tomas prevailed in ANOTHER close one in their matchups, winning 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7). Michael T, freshly married, has been playing stronger every year and is grinding more in addition to his winners and serving. Nice Season! Tomas with his attacking game advances to play our two time champ Rahber.

In our other qualie, Will, consumate grinder, took on Arun, 4 days removed from our mini tourney and crossing many time zones. Arun’s game now consists of some heavy deep groundstrokes while Will keeps it in repeatedly with determination. In a 2.5 hour epic, Will eeked out an 80 minute first set, then Arun unfortunately had an injury. Final score: 7-6, 3-1 ret. Good season Arun, and Will advances to play Tri in the quarterfinals…

View the Championship Bracket